THERE'S STILL
TIME TO FLIRT. Ann Merai (Sanaa Lathan) gets cozy with
Matt (Denzel Washington) in Out
of Time.

They say anything done well looks easy. In the case of Denzel
Washington, cranking out memorable blockbuster films via his
usual role as the tortured and brooding man alone in the world
not only looks easy, but almost seems second nature.

Out of Time is no different, with all the conventions of the
classic 1940s film noir being re-furbished and re-packaged
for the MTV latch-key generation into a tight and nail-biting
105-minute roller coaster ride.

Bouncing back nicely from the propagandist flub John Q., Washington
turns in a seamless performance as Chief Matt Whitlock, the
respected frontman of a four-officer, laissez-faire police
department in a small backwater Florida town.

Before long, Whitlock becomes embroiled in a convoluted game
of cat-and-mouse putting him in the eye of a storm of suspicion
and controversy surrounding a recent double homicide which
he and neighbouring county investigators are tasked with investigating
- an investigation which quickly points to him as the lead
suspect. Add in some drug money, conspiracy theories, double
crossing and a couple of women scorned for seasoning and you
have a suspenseful narrative which is refreshingly unpredictable.

The film also marks Denzel's second collaboration with director
Franklin. He directed 1995's Devil in a Blue Dress, which is
strikingly similar in style and story and which had Denzel
playing the same type of unconventional gumshoe as the protagonist.

Franklin plays up the coastal setting again in this film,
this time using the forbidding obscurity of the Florida Everglades
to help convey a mood and texture to the film which is pure
noir. All the elements of the genre are ubiquitous throughout
the film; the interludes of the muted jazz trumpet heavy with
vibrato, the pounding nighttime rain, the torrid trysts with
the woman of mystery and a general collage of conventions which
are reminiscent of the WWII-era mysteries now largely confined
to the purgatory of late night cable.

The film is slow to start and at times seems to try too hard
to capture the throw-back authenticity Franklin has, for the
most part, conveyed effectively, occasionally coming across
as mildly campy. The revisionist motif serves well to avoid
the typical modern Hollywood traps, however, as the viewer
will find no gratuitous explosions, car/train/boat wrecks,
dual pistols being fired with marksman-like accuracy or any
of the hackneyed sell-out points usually required to validate
the high admission price. Instead, viewers are left to their
own devices to navigate a clever and often twisted storyline
which ultimately comes to fruition in a somewhat anti-climactic
climax, but one which leaves the viewer satisfied none the
less.

Shortly after the film starts to get moving, an interesting
sub-plot is also unveiled in the question of loyalty under
duress. In an age of films telling us not to trust anybody,
Franklin once again evokes a period long since forgotten, when
there would always be someone there to get your back, usually
in the most unlikely of places. Franklin likely could have
better worked this angle between Denzel's character and the
hard living county medical examiner (played by Enterprise's
John Billingsley), but in maintaining the svelte running time
and punchy dialogue, it was no doubt seen as peripheral.

The bottom line on Out of Time is if you're a fan of Lang,
Hitchcock, Tarantino or a similar director and don't mind a
little run-of-the-mill mainstream polishing, this is a film
worth checking out. It's not great, but it's good. Very good.